martes, 28 de abril de 2015

To prevent infections ground beef must be carefully cooked to a
temperature of 160 °F.

Skyline Provisions, Inc., a Harvey, Ill., establishment, is recalling
1,029 pounds of beef products contaminated with E. coli O157:H7,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
announced today.

Produced 15-25 April 2015, the following products are subject to
recall:

·17 ½ boxes of Aurora Packers Intact Beef Round
Flats

On April 15, 2015, Skyline sold the product under their D&S label
(Establishment number: 19300), ground and tested one and a half cases of the
product. On April 21, 2015, these products were positive for E. coli O157:H7.
The remaining intact, products were sold to Jack & Pat's Old Fashioned
Market in Chicago Ridge, Ill., where the product was ground and sold in various
amounts of ground chuck patties, ground chuck, ground round, sirloin patties
and porter-house patties.

FSIS discovered the problem during a routine sampling program. Neither
FSIS nor the company received any reports of illnesses associated with
consumption of this product. FSIS and the company are concerned that some
product may have been sold and stored in consumers' freezers.

E. coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacterium
that can cause dehydration, bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps 2–8 days (3–4 days,
on average) after exposure the organism. While most people recover within a
week, some develop a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome
(HUS). This condition can occur among persons of any age but is most common in
children under 5-years old and older adults. Symptoms included easy bruising,
pallor, and decreased urine output. Persons who experience these symptoms
should seek emergency medical care immediately.

FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling
firms notify theircustomers of the recall and confirm that the
product is no longer available to consumers.

FSIS advises all consumers to safely prepare their raw meat products,
including fresh and frozen, and only consume ground beef that cooked to a
temperature of 160 °F, the only way to confirm that ground beef was properly cooked
to kill harmful bacteria.

lunes, 27 de abril de 2015

A year ago, Brad Frey never would have imagined he would be standing in
front of officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and urging them
to do more to prevent outbreaks of Listeria monocytogenes. Despite living
in the middle of “crop country” outside Santa Cruz, CA, he had never heard
of Listeria monocytogenes, foodborne bacteria less well
known than Salmonella or E. coli, but one that can more often
be fatal.

However, Frey was painfully aware of Listeria by
December 2014, when his mother, passed away from a Listeria infection after eating a contaminated
caramel apple purchased at Safeway.

Recently, he and other foodborne illness victims from around the
U.S. traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with congressional aides
and have the opportunity to address the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

Brad Frey
holds his phone while a video plays of his parents dancing in their driveway
two years ago. Frey and other victims shared their stories with federal
lawmakers.

“In December, my mother passed away from Listeria,”
Frey said, speaking to FDA officials in the audience and a panel of food
industry representatives taking questions. “Since the caramel apple outbreak,
we’ve seen three more outbreaks in the news. It’s pretty heartbreaking to know
that testing could have saved lives, but not enough testing is being done.”

Frey went on to ask the industry panel and FDA what specifically they
were going to do to reduce the risk of Listeria illnesses
going forward.

None of the industry panelists opted to answer, but Frey did
get a quick response from Roberta Wagner, director of regulatory affairs
at FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

That’s
what FSMA is all about, Wagner said — making sure that food companies and FDA
work to eliminate preventable foodborne illnesses because so many of them are
preventable.

A similar
case, presented by John McKissick, a retired teacher and consultant from
Pennsylvania, who fell ill with Listeria three
years ago after eating contaminated cheese imported from Italy and France.
McKissick spent two months hospitalized, six weeks of that
time unconscious. The infection caused significant nerve damage
and, as a result, he had little choice but to retire from work. “In many
cases, Listeria infection is a life sentence,”
he told FDA officials. “It cannot be taken lightly.”

McKissick asked how FDA was going to reduce Listeria illnesses and improve the safety of
imports through its foreign supplier verification program, a core
component of the new regulations included in FSMA.

The
foreign inspection program will require importers to take a new “proactive
responsibility” for food safety.

miércoles, 22 de abril de 2015

Xylella
fastidiosa is a bacterium thought to be behind the devastation
of 74,000 acres of olive groves across southern Italy.

Policy The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has
said plans to destroy up to 11 million olive trees in southern Italy lack
sufficient research, after NGO Peacelink challenged the proposal.

The European Commission had proposed cutting down the
trees to halt the spread of the pathogen Xylella
fastidiosa – but Peacelink urged it to reconsider, saying the measure would
be a great mistake. It claimed that more than 500 olive trees had returned to
health after a treatment for fungi.

Following the NGO’s urging, the Commission asked EFSA
for a scientific opinion on its proposal. “There is no published evidence that
fungal disease management will reduce establishment, spread and impact of X. fastidiosa, other than the
observation that improved orchard management more generally is beneficial for
plant health,

EFSA said in its opinion, in disagreement with
Peacelink’s assessment. However, EFSA shares the concerns over the situation in
olive trees in the affected areas, and fully understands the need for further
research on potential options to reduce the risk and damage caused by X. fastidiosa.

It is the remit of the European and national
authorities – rather than EFSA – to decide on a control strategy, but EFSA
highlighted gaps in knowledge about different agents thought to be involved in
the olive quick decline syndrome, including the leopard moth Zeuzera pyrina, the trachea-mycotic
fungi, as well as Xylella fastidiosa
and the insects that spread it.

Xylella
fastidiosa is a bacterium thought to be behind the devastation
of 74,000 acres of olive groves across southern Italy.

The Commission had
proposed emergency control measures to destroy olive trees in the affected area
– 12% of which are contaminated. No one from Peacelink responded to a request
for comment on EFSA’s opinion prior to publication.

lunes, 20 de abril de 2015

Awareness about listeriosis from RTE foods in risk
groups, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
(ECDC). Despite the relatively low number of cases caused by Listeria the average
case fatality rate was 16%, for all other diseases looked at, the rate was
below 1%. Findings come as part of a report looking at food and waterborne
diseases in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) between
2010 and 2012. The surveillance report looked at campylobacteriosis,
listeriosis, non­-typhoidal salmonellosis, shigellosis, Shiga
toxin/verocytotoxin producing E.coli
(STEC/VTEC) infections, typhoid and paratyphoid fever and yersiniosis.

Listeria
concerns. Of special concern are Listeria infections among the elderly. Hospital related outbreaks
remain a significant concern and underscore the high infection risk related to
processed, ready­ to­ eat (RTE) foods in settings where vulnerable population
groups. An increasing trend in domestically acquired listeriosis cases between
2008 and 2012. In the two years, 4,851 cases, representing an average rate of
0.35 per 100,000 population and 517 deaths. The highest number of listeriosis
cases was from Germany, accounting for 23% of all reported cases, followed by
France with 19% and the UK with 11%. Reported human listeriosis cases were most
frequently associated with serotypes 1/2a and 4b and there was increase in
notification rates in age group older than 65 years.

Campylobacter and Salmonella: Campylobacteriosis
continued to be the most commonly reported zoonosis, with 662,521 confirmed
cases and an average notification rate of 67 per 100,000 population in
2010–2012. Confirmed cases in the EU/EEA followed an increasing trend in the
last five years (2008–2012), with a clear seasonality and peaking of cases in
June–August. The majority (about 90%) of Campylobacter
infections acquired in EU/EEA countries. C. jejuni remained stable, while C. coli
increased significantly in 2008–2012.

A stable trend in confirmed shigellosis cases with the
average notification rate of 1.8 per 100,000 population, with 21,969 reported
cases in 2010–2012. Two thirds of the reported cases were travel ­related from
countries outside the EU/EEA. Shigella
sonnei was the most commonly reported species (56% of total species
reported) in 2010–2012, followed by S. flexneri (33% of total species
reported). The trend in S. flexneri cases
significantly increased during 2008–2012. STEC/VTEC infections showed a
significantly increasing trend over the surveillance period. Even without counting,
the cases reported in the STEC/VTEC O104:H4 outbreak in Germany in 2011, the
trend was significantly increasing in 2008–2010. In 2010–2012, 18,995 confirmed
STEC/VTEC cases (1.7 cases per 100,000 population). The number of cases
reported in 2012 increased by 55% (2,037 cases) compared with 2010. An
increasing number of reports of confirmed STEC/VTEC cases is possibly an effect
of increased awareness and improved capacity in the EU/EEA countries following
the outbreak.

Of those isolates of known serogroup, the most frequent
was E. coli O157 (55%). The five most
common STEC/VTEC serotypes were O157:H7 (26%), O157:H­ (10%), O104:H4 (6.1%),
O26:H11 (5.8%) and O103:H2 (5.7%), 90% of infections were of domestic origin.

jueves, 16 de abril de 2015

Thirty-one ill people result hospitalized, and seven died
with Listeriosis

Bidart Bros. is the source of a Listeria outbreak that has sickened at least 32 people and has
links to three deaths. The traceback investigation confirmed the apple
supplier, based in Bakersfield, California, is the only one that supplied
apples to the Happy Apple Company and Merb’s Candies, said the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA).

The agency said test results confirm two strains at
the apple processing facility and were associated with the outbreak. Leonard
Bidart, president at Bidart Bros, said the results are devastating to the
family but they are cooperating completely with the US Food and Drug
Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the
California Department of Public Health.

Expanded recall:
The Company has recalled all Bidart Bros. Granny Smith and Gala apples
still in the marketplace. Bidart Bros. last shipped Granny Smith apples to
customers on December 2, 2014. In its latest update (January 10) the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 32 people infected with the
outbreak strains of Listeriamonocytogenes from 11 states.

Thirty-one ill people result hospitalized, and seven died.
Listeriosis contributed to at least three of these. Ten illnesses affected
pregnant women with one illness resulting in a fetal loss and three meningitis among
otherwise healthy children aged 5–15 years. To date, 25 (89%) of the 28 ill
people interviewed reported eating commercially produced, prepackaged caramel
apples before becoming ill. The three ill people, who did not report eating
caramel apples did eat whole or sliced green apples not covered in caramel but
the source remains unknown, said CDC. Canada investigation

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has
identified two cases of listeriosis with the same DNA fingerprints, or PFGE
patterns, as seen in the US outbreak.

miércoles, 15 de abril de 2015

A team of MIT chemists has developed a small sensor that's capable of telling consumers whether the meat in their refrigerators is safe to eat. The team believes that the inexpensive device, which makes use of modified carbon nanotubes, could help cut down on food waste.

The idea behind the sensor focuses on chemically altering carbon nanotubes so that their ability to carry an electric current is inhibited when a certain gas is present. The nanotubes were modified with metal-containing compounds known as metalloporphyrins, in this case containing a single cobalt atom bound to numerous nitrogen-containing rings.

That compound is effective at binding to compounds known as biogenic amines, such as cadaverine and putrescine, which are produced by meat when it starts to decay. When these gases are present, the the electrical resistance in the carbon nanotube is increased, with the reaction easily measured to provide feedback to the user.

The sensor was tested on pork, beef, chicken, salmon and cod, successfully detecting decay in the samples when left unrefrigerated.

The sensors are cheap and easy to manufacturer, use very little power, and do not require any expertise to use. As such, the team believes that the devices could be incorporated into the packaging of meat products, allowing them to offer much more accurate safety information than a standard expiry date.

This isn't the first time we've seen carbon nanotubes put to work checking that produce is fresh. Back in 2012, MIT developed a similar sensor that uses the same concept, in that case watching out for the gas ethylene, which causes fruit to begin to ripen.

lunes, 13 de abril de 2015

Led by China, some importers are demanding new restrictions on residues
contained in U.S. dairy products. The latest target is nonylphenol ethoxylates
(NPE), a compound commonly used in the past in teat dipping.

The growth in dairy exports markets, and since most processors have
limited capability to segregate milk or dairy products within their facilities,
forced several of them to institute a complete ban on the use of NPEs by their
dairy farmer milk suppliers. Over the past few months, several cooperatives art asking farmer to switch iodine dipping for other products without NPEs.

What are NPE’s? NP are surfactants which
are widely used in industrial cleaning applications, hard surface degreasers
and laundry detergents. NPEs have been eliminated from many household product over
the past 20-30 years, primarily because of biodegradation and aquatic toxicity
concerns.

On dairy farms, NPEs can be found in external surface cleaners and
laundry detergents. There is minimal likelihood these applications would result
in NPE residues in milk. It is more probable NPE residues result from
clean-in-position (CIP) sanitation applications – although a majority of CIP
detergents do not contain standard NPEs because they are high-foaming. NPEs
have also been used in iodine teat disinfectants supplied by most teat dip
manufactures in the U.S. market.

Despite their drawbacks – skin irritation – they are effective as a
low-cost way to solubilize iodine. A 1% iodine teat dip product would typically
contain 7%-10% NPE.

A concern raised by China is that NPEs may be endocrine disruptors. This
relates to the chemical structure of nonylphenol, mimicking certain hormones
similar to estrogen. The potential effects are greatest to infants and young
children who consume the highest amounts of fluid milk.

The industry is actively recommending non-NPE alternatives, or
reformulating their iodine products. Copper dipping without NPE, presently
tested in Chile, should be an excellent option.

Whether required by their dairy processor or not, dairy farmers may want
to ask their teat dip supplier whether or not the product contains NPEs, and
what the cost difference will be for a non-NPE product. The encouraging news is
U.S. dairy producers have viable options, including non-NPE teat dips already
on the market.

viernes, 10 de abril de 2015

European Center for Disease Control present this new
technology during the World Health Day in which the year’s theme was food
safety.

On this occasion, ECDC launches the sero-incidence
calculator tool for human Salmonella and
Campylobacter infections and
publishes the ‘Surveillance report on the seven priority food- and waterborne
diseases in the EU/EEA, 2010-2012’.

Campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis are the two
leading gastrointestinal diseases reported in the European Union. However, the
reported number of cases represents only a small fraction of all infections
that actually occur.

As a consequence, an ECDC funded project has developed a
tool which provides additional information. The tool utilizes the measured
combination of serum antibody levels (IgG, IgM, and IgA) at a given point in
time and estimates the time since sero-conversion. This in turn gives an
estimate on the frequency of exposure to Salmonella and Campylobacter in the
tested population.

This tool builds upon an EU-wide study [1] on sero-incidence
of salmonellosis which produced estimates showing tenfold differences by
country in the frequency of exposure to Salmonella.

The sero-incidence tool
enables the calculation of estimates for monitoring the effects of control programs
as they provide more accurate information on the pressure of infection to
humans in EU/EEA countries. Despite the decrease in the number of reported
salmonellosis cases, this tenfold difference shows that continued surveillance
and vigilance remains of utmost importance.

The
‘Surveillance report on the seven priority food- and waterborne diseases in the
EU/EEA 2010-2012’ is the second dedicated epidemiological report for
non-typhoidal salmonellosis, typhoid and paratyphoid fever, campylobacteriosis,
Shiga toxin/vero-cytotoxin-producing
Escherichia coli (STEC/VTEC) infections, listeriosis, shigellosis and
yersiniosis.

For most of the gastrointestinal diseases, the
case-fatality rate was below 1%, except for listeriosis, for which the average
case-fatality rate was 16% between 2010 and 2012. Of special concern are Listeria infections among the elderly,
where case numbers have increased sharply, particularly in men over 65 years of
age.

jueves, 9 de abril de 2015

Food safety and food quality should be used as a competitive
advantage

There has been more change in the food safety
landscape in the last few years compared to the previous 30.

The firm said over the years major drivers have
included consumers, regulation and retailers. World Health Day is being
celebrated recently (7 April), with WHO highlighting the challenges and opportunities
associated with food safety under the slogan of “From farm to plate, make food
safe.”

Technology driving change Kevin Habas, global
scientific marketing and education manager, said the US Food Safety and
Modernization Act (FSMA) is now having an impact and the Global Food Safety
Initiative (GFSI) was an earlier driving force.

The change has been because industry in the past few
years has overseen more technology develop than ever before. There has been
more change in the past five to 10 years than the prior 30, it is more
competitive in the space and some of that is driven by consumer groups.

These advocacy groups want fresh, local, organic and non-GMO
food. Despite companies best efforts there are still global recalls and a few
of the best companies in the world are sometimes implicated.” Today people
assume, and rightly so, that all food they eat is safe. It is the government’s
obligation to ensure that and the FDA or the USDA or their equivalents around
the world must have the systems in place to make sure. “

Retailers are also involved as they have private label
products that must be consistent and ensure uniformity and they are driving
more standards around audits.

3M Food Safety
provides indicator tests, sample handling, pathogen detection, hygiene and time
temperature monitoring. The firm has worked with Dr Martin Wiedmann at Cornell
University on quick time to results. Quicker reaction time is possible today to
respond in one ­tenth of the time than previously detect where any problem is
coming from, isolate it and find the cause to get it out of the marketplace.

A newer issue is information overload as there is so
much data, you need the right data and in the right amounts. It is more of an issue
as digitalized to find the important information and information to track. Things such as temperature, line speed and
pressure are monitored as well as all the chemical and microbiological test
results and you need to make sense of it all.

A ‘one size fits all’ approach does not apply to food
safety. Food safety is not viewed as public health until a recall as there is
no hard link.

Critical control points include sanitation schedules
and robust hygiene monitoring plans, incoming raw materials and food contact
surface testing. It is extremely important to increase awareness of issues
globally, to promote best practice sharing and elevate the conversation.

martes, 7 de abril de 2015

Forty-one
percent of foods in home refrigerators were beyond the use-by date, temperature
was also higher than the limit.

Increased Listeria monocytogenes incidence among
older adults ($60 years) has been reported internationally, with many cases
reported to be sporadic and associated with ready-to-eat (RTE) food products
with extended refrigerated shelf life.

Given that
the home kitchen is recognized as a significant location where foodborne
illnesses are acquired, it is important that consumers implement safe food
practices to minimize risks. This is crucial for vulnerable consumers, such as
older adults.

Consumer
food safety recommendations in the United Kingdom to reduce the risk of
listeriosis at home include (i) following ‘‘use-by’’ dates on unopened pre-packed
RTE food products, (ii) consuming RTE food products within 2 days of opening,
and (iii) ensuring the safe operating temperatures of domestic refrigerators
(#5uC). This study utilized observation, self-reporting, and microbiological
analysis to determine actual food storage practices to identify behavioral risk
factors.

A domestic
kitchen survey was conducted in older adult ($60 years) consumers’ domestic
kitchens (n ~ 100) in South Wales, United Kingdom. Forty-one percent of foods
in home refrigerators were beyond the use-by date, of which 11% were unopened
RTE food products commonly associated with listeriosis.

Sixty-six percent
of opened RTE foods had been or were intended to be stored beyond the
recommended 2 days after opening. Older adults failed to ensure safe
refrigeration temperatures, with 50% of central storage and 85% of door storage
areas operating at temperatures .5ºC.

Older
refrigerators operated at significantly (P 0.05) higher temperatures. Given
that Listeria monocytogenes was
isolated in 2% of kitchens, these findings suggest that storage malpractices
may have a greater effect on the potential risk of listeriosis than its
presence alone.

The study
has determined that many older adults fail to adhere to recommendations and
subject RTE foods associated with Listeria
monocytogenes to prolonged storage at unsafe temperatures which may render
food unsafe for consumption.

lunes, 6 de abril de 2015

Research conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) suggests a greater proportion of Shigella infections in the United States are now
resistant to a very important antibiotic.

Shigella causes an estimated
500,000 cases of diarrhea in the United States annually and is transmitted
easily from person to person and through contaminated food and recreational
water.

Outbreaks of shigellosis frequently are large and drawn-out. Although
diarrhea caused by Shigella sonnei typically
resolves without treatment, patients with mild illness often are treated with
antimicrobial medications because they can reduce the duration of symptoms and
the shedding of Shigella in feces.

The national molecular subtyping network for foodborne disease, PulseNet,
detected a multistate cluster of S. sonnei infections
in December 2014, CDC’s National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System
(NARMS) laboratory determined that isolates from the cluster were resistant to
ciprofloxacin.

Between May 2014 and February 2015, CDC identified 157 cases of
ciprofloxacin-resistant S. sonnei infections.
Ciprofloxacin is the first-line treatment for adults with shigellosis because
the bug’s resistance to other antimicrobials is either common or increasing. Of
126 total isolates with antimicrobial susceptibility information, 87 percent
were not susceptible to ciprofloxacin.

There were 95 cases of ciprofloxacin-resistant Shigella infections in residents of, or travelers
to, San Francisco in late 2014, but only nine of them made it into PulseNet.

About half of the 157 ciprofloxacin-resistant Shigella cases Pulse Net detected were associated
with international travel.

Of the 75 patients with available information, 40 reported traveling
internationally during their incubation period. Twenty-two went to the
Dominican Republic, four to Haiti, eight to India, and three to Morocco.

No common
airline or airport exposures were identified. Most travelers to the Dominican
Republic stayed at resorts in Punta Cana; however, no common hotel, resort,
restaurant, or event was reported.Travelers
need to be aware of the risks of acquiring multidrug-resistant pathogens,
carefully wash their hands, and adhere to food and water precautions during
international travel,” CDC said.

Although Shigella strains are strongly
associated with international travel, it is now circulating domestically. If
introduced to certain populations, Shigella can
spread rapidly and cause large, protracted outbreaks, as occurred in San
Francisco.

jueves, 2 de abril de 2015

Health officials used two
tests, whole genome sequencing (WGS) and pulsed field gel electrophoresis
(PFGE) to link sprouts with patients

The Wholesome Soy bean
sprout Listeria outbreak in 2014 has a similar story to the first reported
Listeria bean sprout outbreak in 2008. Both were discovered by routine testing.

The 2008 outbreak included 20 cases reported
between March 2008 and March 2009. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) tests
showed all 20 patients were sickened by the same strain. The cases were
reported from seven states: CA (1), MA (6), NY (6), NJ (4), MD (1), ME (1) and
NH (1).

The case patients ranged in age range from 20 to
89. Sixty five percent were female, 21 percent were pregnant at the time of
infection. All of them were hospitalized.

The source of the infections was unknown until the
New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets found Listeria in sample of alfalfa sprouts and uploaded it to the PulseNet,
an inter-agency foodborne illness database, on April 6, 2009. It was a
match to the outbreak strain.

The contaminated sprouts were from a producer in
Bridgeport, CT and collected from a supermarket distributor in New York.
Investigators from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) inspected the producer’s facility. They collected
environmental samples and sprout samples. Tests revealed the presence of
Listeria in alfalfa sprouts, clover sprouts, sprout blends and at multiple
locations throughout the facility and in spent irrigation water. The producer
issued a recall and halted production.

The story is similar to the Wholesome Soy Listeria outbreak announced in November
2014. That outbreak sickened five people in Michigan and Illinois,
killing two of them.It was discovered during a routine FDA
inspection at the company’s plant in Chicago from August 12 to September
3, 2014. FDA investigators collected samples of mung bean sprouts and spent
irrigation water. Twenty five of the samples collected were positive for Listeria.

Health officials used two tests, whole genome
sequencing (WGS) and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to link sprouts
produced by Wholesome Soy to four cases of listeriosis in Illinois and one case
in Michigan. All five patients were hospitalized. During interviews, two of the
surviving patients reported eating bean sprouts before they became ill.

When investigators from the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) inspected the Wholesome Soy Products Chicago facility in
August and October, they found unsanitary conditions both times.Wholesome issued a recall of the sprouts and is no
longer in business,

Cleaning and hygiene stricter chicken part standards
will mean changes for poultry processors and safer food for consumers,
according to CMS Technology. The firm uses ingredients given GRAS (generally
regarded as safe) status by the US Food and Drug Administration in a product
designed to prevent microorganisms, especially in secondary processing where
there are cross contamination concerns.

PoultrypHresh is a liquid additive designed for
poultry processors to prevent Salmonella and

E. coli for various points in the
supply chain. When using PoultrypHresh, Salmonella
on chicken parts was reduced from a typical reading of 5% to 0.5%, according to
a study by CMS Technologies and the University of Georgia (UGA).

E. coli presence was
reduced to 0.2% from some findings as high as 40%. Secondary processing received
Letters of No Objection (LNOs) from the USDA and Canadian Food Inspection
Agency (CFIA). This is a good opportunity to apply a new technology in
secondary processing, where whole chickens are cut into parts. In late 2013,
early 2014 the changes came along and we tested this technology. Now it is more
established and there are more opportunities. Key to the traction is getting
the first customers on board and comfortable and as people address the issue
more the traction will become more as it solves industry issues.

CMS has an alliance with researchers at the University
of Georgia to develop safety and sanitation technology for secondary poultry
processing. The company is working with UGA’s team of scientists on additional
technologies and methods to combat cross­ contamination during secondary
poultry processing. Is very difficult to make zero contamination but a
reduction to protect the food supply chain is possible. This technology can be
applied in various steps and measured to optimize dosing rates.

The new technology has various applications, it
depends on the different levels and pH so look at acidity and dose systems with
the right level. It is important to be sure its application have not an effect
on taste or other damage to the product.

The US
Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA­FSIS) will
change the way chicken parts are processed from spring 2015. Stricter standards
will mean changes for poultry processors and safer food for consumers.

USDA­/FSIS extended the comment period for proposed
standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in ground chicken, turkey
products and raw chicken parts last month. Trade associations requested that
FSIS extend the comment period by 90 days but the agency said it would only do
so for 60 days (now ending May 26) and it said there would be no delay in
actions in the notice published in January.